[pskmail] Re: BBS for emergency communications
- From: "Rich Hudgins" <rhudgins@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: <pskmail@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Mon, 22 Jan 2007 18:03:56 -0600
This has raised a point that I have thought about some and would like to
comment on. First during Hurricane Rita it would have been of first
importance to be able to send either email or simple text messages
between clients. This would allow some sort of message form to be
followed. Second store and forward should be implemented between
clients in the same sort of autonegotioate mode that mesh networking
uses. That is if one of the clients on the air in the self forming net
has a connection to an internet server then all mail is forwarded to
that station. To do this first all stations on the common frequency
would have to recognize each other and also who everyone can talk to as
well as build a simple path [route] to each client. Something like that
would be of great usefulness in an emergency. If each station builds a
route list for the stations it hears and assigns a route index based on
the amount of retries and broadcasts this list periodicaly then the
rest would be straight forward.
Rich Hudgins N5ale
Ps I know its not as easy as I make it sound but it would be the first
dynamic network on HF that I know about.
-----Original Message-----
From: pskmail-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:pskmail-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx]
On Behalf Of Rein Couperus
Sent: Monday, January 22, 2007 2:06 PM
To: pskmail@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [pskmail] BBS for emergency communications
I have been looking into a BBS for adding to pskmail, to help those who
* have no internet connection for the server
* are forbidden to connect a radio to the internet (France)
* are setting up emergency comms for cases when a large slice of the
internet is down and there is no possibility to reach an HF gateway with
running internet.
Of course I have been shopping for something useable which is existing
and alive. I have found only 2 cases of BBSes which are still in
development/maintenance, and they are both german. The rest is either
dead or DOS. (The last update of F6FBB BBS was in Jan, 2003).
The best is probably the one from the Baycom group in Munich, called
OpenBCM.
But all these are cosmic solutions covering everything, the universe and
the neighbours'cat. These BBSes are a nightmare to configure, and you
need 2 people to run one. Moreover, the whole infrastructure these BBSes
use is dying quickly. In PA0 land the packet backbone has died,
the local city node in Eindhoven has 1 packet link and 7 internet
tunnels. And the group of AX25 users has gone down from 85 to 4.
The main concern I have is that it is all based on a fixed
infrastructure, and I am sure what is needed in an emergency situation
is ad hoc. The number of volunteers maintaining these systems is getting
less in numbers, and the freaks running the infrastructure only talk
amongst themselves.... Technical development has stopped. We are still
looking at 9600 bd ax25 links. An on 30m you can hear the wonders of a
full-fledged HF APRS network running with 300 Bd AFSK digipeaters!!!
If we are then talking about voluntary resources, I think we need much
more basic stuff which is very much automatic and can be set up in an
easy but flexible way depending on circumstances.
I had sworn I would not get involved in all this, but maybe it is worth
getting started up. I have a nice test bed at the university of
Eindhoven, who host a pskmail server AND a packet BBS (F6FBB).
One of the first things we need to know is, what is the minimum
functionality of such a BBS?
To kick the ball off, I would say:
* Storage of mail not deliverable via internet (immediate delivery in
case of internet connection)
* Store/forward of mail to a destination BBS via a HF link
* User interface via Kmail or Evolution (POP3 interface)
* Capability to send scheduled bulletins
* Built in web server so people can also look at the mail locally (at
the server location, which may be a command post of some sorts) via a
connected LAN with a laptop
This must be especially targeted at the emergency comms, as we have a
satisfying working solution for normal situations.
Ideas are welcome.
Scenarios are welcome.
Resources are even more welcome.
73,
Rein PA0R
--
http://pa0r.blogspirit.com
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